


Farmer's Half-Dozen

by misura



Category: The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Genre: M/M, happy farmers Marcus and Esca
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 07:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17055452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: In which Marcus realizes he and Esca seem to have adopted some kids.





	Farmer's Half-Dozen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doctor_denmark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctor_denmark/gifts).



Marcus doesn't really notice the kids until there's, like, five of them, at which point he sort of feels like he's lost the right to complain. He tells himself that it's no big deal, that if they can handle taking care of the house and the animals and the garden by themselves, they can totally handle five kids.

They're cute as buttons, too. Two girls and two boys and one Marcus isn't sure about. Esca probably knows, because Esca is good at these kinds of things - or anything, really.

One day, after he's fed the chickens, he crouches down a bit and asks one of the girls where her parents are. (A mistake, of course; they wouldn't be here if their parents were still alive, unless maybe their parents were homicidal maniacs or something.)

She looks at him for a long time, then points up, towards the sky.

Marcus realizes, at this point, that he doesn't know her name. He should probably feel grateful she even understands Latin, even though Latin is the language of all civilized people.

"Her parents were killed by Romans," Esca says, from behind him.

Marcus gets up and turns around. One of the boys is sitting on Esca's shoulders. Marcus decides not to ask what happened to _his_ parents.

He says, "Oh," feeling awkward and vaguely guilty.

"If you want something to do, I think the stable's roof is leaking," Esca says. "Again."

Marcus looks at the girl. Her expression is a bit bland, like she hasn't associated the words Romans and parents and Marcus in a way that spells out that Romans killed her parents and Marcus is a Roman, therefore Marcus killed her parents (which isn't how logic works, but eh).

"Yeah," he says. "All right. I'll go take a look."

"Take some tools, too," Esca says. "They might come in useful if you want to fix it."

 

Marcus doesn't consciously know where the kids sleep. He knows a few things about running a household, or an estate, or a fort, or commanding a unit of legionaries, but nothing in life has prepared him for life on a farm with a freed slave and a bunch of kids and way too many chickens, to say nothing of the pigs, the cows and the sheep.

"Hey," he tells Esca, when it's just the two of them, in bed together. (Marcus suggested separate bedrooms at some point, and Esca'd given him a look and said that if Marcus ever deserved it, he could just go sleep in the stable or on a floor somewhere or something.)

Esca kisses him. Esca is a very good kisser, even if Marcus also sometimes feels like Esca uses kissing as a way to remind Marcus who's boss. Esca kisses Marcus as if he's got something to prove (he doesn't), as if Marcus might forget Esca isn't his slave anymore if Esca wouldn't remind him (he'd never).

"These kids," Marcus says, once Esca generously allows him to breathe for a while.

Part of Marcus has already lost interest in pursuing this topic. Esca's right there with him, after all, warm and alive and his, in a manner of speaking, which is to say: not his. Very much not his. But ... _kind of_ his?

"What about them?" Esca asks. "You think there's room for another?"

"Uh," Marcus says, because that wasn't really where he planned on going with this, and also Esca's hands are doing some things that aren't helping him to think clearly and rationally.

Esca stills.

Marcus swallows a protest. "I just - did we ever talk about them? 'cause I think we should have talked about them, before - well, before."

"You want to kick them out and leave them to starve?" Esca asks. His tone is ominously calm.

"Well, no," Marcus says, feeling as if he should have kept his big mouth shut. "Of course not."

Esca's hands start moving again. "Then what's the problem?"

 _You decide,_ Marcus had told him, a long time ago. (Less than a year, actually.) _You decide._ And he's happy, having brought back the Eagle and being here, with Esca. It's not like he's complaining about anything, like he wants to go back to being the kind of Roman who's responsible for making the kind of decisions that means people get killed and raped and enslaved.

"No problem," Marcus says and then, because Esca isn't the only one capable of a bit of manipulation: "We've probably got room for another one, if you want."

"You're only saying that because you want something," Esca says.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Marcus says. "I mean, what could I possibly want from you. That you weren't already going to give me anyway, that is."

"Romans." Esca shakes his head. "Always so arrogant."

"I love you," Marcus says, because pointing out that all Britons are stubborn and annoying has never gotten him anywhere, and also, occasional missteps notwithstanding, he's not an idiot.


End file.
